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Excellent Imagery

pear

Suddenly the whole world had changed. From the dense blackness the sky on the horizon opened up, as a breeze, singing like the notes of a distant pipe, blew gently on the treacle night. The horizon greened, grew lighter, and glowed. Oranges and pinks reflected of early morning clouds, as the alien sun rose over the side of the planet, majestically reminding the trees of its existence. The trees knew, and remembered. The grasses at their mighty roots whispered to each other, and the piping breeze hushed them with caressing hands of air. The white fruits, plump and womb-shaped, swelled...

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Oh The Sickness

slippers

[bt_bb_section layout="boxed_1200" lazy_load="yes" show_video_on_mobile=""][bt_bb_row][bt_bb_column lazy_load="yes" width="1/1"][bt_bb_text] Every author wants to write all day, all the time. But life has this horrible way of getting in the way. Three months ago I sat down with the third draft of a book about a secret service agent, a kidnapped Empress and some devious plot devices. I had time while my oldest kid was at daycare and my youngest was running around my feet bringing me plastic objects for me to admire. I got really into it. I was writing, and editing, and changing whole chapters and even the names of characters because...

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The Quick Bamboo Fence

bamboo fence

A few months ago I was walking home from daycare with both kids in the pushchair. I took out number #1 so she could walk up the stairs and into the house, and then turned to take the baby out of the pushchair. #1 immediately turned, and sprinted for the road (as fast as her 2 year old legs would take her). We don't have a gate currently. Clutching the baby to my chest, I hurried after her as fast as I could without dropping the baby. She got to the road and I reached her two steps before she...

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Where is the Tin Opener?

tin opener

What a Wednesday. My partner-in-crime is out, and I think I'm ready for the evening crazies that start at 4pm, despite my 6 broken hours of sleep the night before. I set out the prep for my dinner and put #1 kid's food in the microwave. Then I try to find the tin opener and it has vanished. I remember that she's taken to thinking it's a hairbrush and pinches it out of the drawer, so she's taken it, or I've confiscated it and put it somewhere "safe". A cursory search yields only frustration for me. Then #1 yells for...

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Re-Purposed Tee Shirts

tee shirt blankets

I had some old kid tee shirts donated to me and while they were way, way too big for my baby, I didn't want to just throw them away or get rid of them because I liked the patterns. So I thought about making them in a quilt. But the prints were too big, and I don't have that much patience when it comes to quilting. It's not my jam. But I thought - hey, the baby will need some blankets - so I made them into small quilted blankets for the baby. When she out-grew them they went to...

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The Hiccup of Doom

burst blood vessel in eye

Nobody likes being sick. But it happens, and we deal with it. But being sick and having kids makes you think wistfully about the times you took that day off work to feel miserable, alone, and sleep. With pregnancy #1 I got food poisoning at 6 months. I threw up so much I burst blood vessels in my eyes, which was both impressive and horrible at the same time. But kid #1 was very not sick for 18 months - thanks to both vaccines and the isolation that staying at home with mum can give you. Then kid #2 came...

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Finding time to write

Sometimes I know what a book is going to do before I start. Sometimes I just start a book hoping it will write itself, and often it does. The book I'm on at the moment I have always vaguely known where it was going, it's just trying to get the characters there seems to be a hard one. This one grew organically. I started with a specific image in my mind and wrote that down. The characters came easily, and the first part of the story grew without me really trying. Then I got to a point where I figured...

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